


Last Call

by heisenfox



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Infinity War), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Not A Fix-It, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-29 15:09:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14475339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heisenfox/pseuds/heisenfox
Summary: After the events of Infinity War, there's work to do - Phil Coulson decides it's time to call his old team.MAJOR SPOILERS FOR INFINITY WAR. READ AT OWN DISCRETION.





	Last Call

**Author's Note:**

> Seriously, if you haven't seen Infinity War, LOOK AWAY NOW.

They were so focused on changing the future Enoch had taken them to that they got distracted...they got complacent. A problem was in front of them, they knew where it _could_ go, and they thought they knew how to stop it. They let their guard down, and that wasn’t something Phil Coulson allowed very often. But here they were, focused on Deke and Daisy and Talbot and the so-called Destroyer of Worlds when suddenly, without warning, people started fading away. Literally _fading away._

Phil hears a shout, a sound of terror, and glances up to see Yo-Yo trying to cling to Mack as he slowly crumbles to dust. Another shout, and his head whips around to see Deke reaching for Daisy as she, too, disappears; Phil couldn’t seem to keep his eyes on any one part of the room, multiple members of his team vanishing before his eyes. By the time it all stops, he’s on his knees, hands pressed to the floor, arms trembling with the weight of holding him up despite his grief. Grief, he realizes, he doesn’t have time for. Not if he’s going to figure out what happened and get his people back.

With more effort than he thinks himself capable of exerting, Phil pushes himself up, shakily stands, and looks around. Deke is sitting on the floor, crying near where Daisy was last seen, his grandmother’s arms around him, tight, as if Jemma thought she could hold both of them together, keep them from a matching fate; Yo-Yo is clinging to Fitz, who keeps shaking his head frantically; May is sitting with her back to the wall, arms around her knees, holding onto the wooden figure Robin always carried. Phil shakes his head once, roughly, shaking away his last vestige of despair, and rolls his shoulders back.

“Fitz,” he calls out, voice harsher than perhaps it needed to be. “Get on the computers. Check if this was everywhere. Get Fury on the line if you can, Hill if you can’t reach him. Jemma, I need you to check the rest of the base. See who else made it. Deke, go above ground. I need eyes on civilians, get me as close to a tally as possible of how wide this went in our vicinity. If this is another breach in the gravitonium, we need to know. If it’s worse…we’ll face that when we get there. Let’s move, people.” He watches, proud, as his team pulls themselves together and get to work.

May slowly stands, and silently walks toward the hangar; Coulson knows better than to follow her, but doesn’t say anything when Yo-Yo goes in the same direction. Their grief is different, but equally as deep, and Phil couldn’t let himself feel his yet. Not yet…

Fitz is working frantically, hands flying over the keys at a speed Phil had only ever seen out of Daisy, when suddenly he stops. “Sir,” he says, voice breathless. “Sir, you’ll want to see this.”

On the screen, Ftiz is projecting multiple news feeds from around the globe; alien ships over Wakanda, Scotland, New York, all in the last twelve hours. Reports of planes, cars, helicopters, and trains crashing. Rumors of people just…disappearing. Coulson takes it all in, and Fitz opens his mouth as if to speak before hesitating. “What else, Fitz?” Phil asks, voice soft.

“Well, sir…I couldn’t reach Director Fury, sir. Nor Maria Hill.”

“Try again.”

“I did, sir,” Fitz whispers. “I’ve been calling them non-stop since you told me what to do. Until…a stranger answered Director Fury’s phone. Said they found it in the gutter where he….”

Phil lets his eyes shut, and holds them that way for a few long moments. “Okay.”

“Sir?” Fitz asks.

“I’ve got one last call I can make. I don’t even know if the number is still in service. Without Daisy, it’s the best hope I’ve got but….” Phil pulls out his phone, and dials the number, thumb moving on pure muscle memory. He presses call, and lifts the phone to his ear, breath caught in his throat.

The line rings once before the call is answered, and a panicked woman’s voice picks up on the other end. “Tony?”

Phil exhales, and again, his eyes seem to shut of their own accord. “No, Pepper…I’m not Tony.”

He hears a sharp inhale, and then Pepper’s voice, tremulous, replies with a quiet, “Phil?”

Against the odds, Phil feels the ghost of a smile cross his face. “Yeah, Pep, it’s me. I’m sorry I didn’t call before. Any excuses I had feel stupid now. I take it Tony never came back from that ship?”

Pepper lets out a sigh, and Phil can so easily picture her running her hand through her hair, even though it’s probably still immaculate. “No, and our call cut out less than a minute after he boarded it. I’m worried, Phil. People are disappearing, and I don’t know what to do.”

Phil gestures to Fitz to move, and starts typing out coordinates. “Get to the compound. I’ll meet you there with what’s left of my team. If you have any way to reach the Avengers, if any of them are still standing, have them come too. Don’t tell them I’m coming. This isn’t something they should hear over a phone call. Not given….everything.”

They plan the rest over a few more minutes, as Fitz gathers as much stuff as he can, Simmons helping him as she returns with the few teammates that survived. Everyone heads toward Zephyr One, where May and Yo-Yo are waiting in silence. Phil tells them the plan, and they both nod firmly. Something is better than nothing, he supposes.

Before they know it, they’ve arrived, and Phil heads inside with no hesitation, finding Pepper waiting in the kitchen, a spread to rival any party Tony’s ever thrown sprawled across the countertops. Phil laughs, then, realizing that, despite the years that have gone by, his friend is still the same manic planner she’s always been, especially in a crisis. A weak sob escapes her lips, as she folds Phil into her arms, one of her hands firmly gripping the side of his neck, the other stroking gently through his hair. He hears her whispering in his ear about how glad she is he’s back, now of all possible times, and how much she’s missed him; he whispers apologies back, and just holds her tighter and tighter, letting himself feel the weight lift off his shoulders.

There’s a bang, sudden, and loud, and bright, and they look up to see a bifrost opening on the lawn. _Thor,_ Phil thinks, his heart soaring. Thor who could have known he was back years ago, but didn’t because Phil made Sif promise not to say. Thor, who Phil barely got to know, but always admired. As the light fades, Phil finds himself suddenly nervous, and steps away from the windows. He knows they’re going to see him soon enough, but he doesn’t want them to see him from where they stand and panic. He can hear the doors open, and Pepper heads toward the entryway; Phil is grateful they’ll see her first, at least.

He hears their footsteps and steels himself, ready for the impending explosion that’s sure to come. What he’s greeted with instead, is a sharp gasp and the sound of someone stumbling, as though they unexpectedly stopped dead in their tracks. He turns, slowly, and takes a deep breath; Natasha, usually the picture of grace and always as quiet as a mouse, it seems, was the one who stumbled. Her face is ashen at the sight of him, and Colonel Rhodes is gripping her arm tight enough to bruise. Her eyes rake over Phil’s face, and he can see her judging whether or not he’s really there; slowly, he steps forward, says her name softly, and as she comes to the conclusion this isn’t some trick, she rushes him, practically knocking him to the ground. He holds her as tightly as she’s holding him, her feet dangling off the floor, as the force of her hug had propelled her up into his arms, and he can feel the silent sobs wracking her body. “I’m sorry, Nat, I’m so sorry,” he keeps whispering.

It feels like eons go by before she pulls away, and as soon as she does, he finds another pair of arms are wrapped around him; the grip is so strong, Phil almost feels like it’s going to snap him in two. It takes a moment before he can make out the words that are being murmured above him, but he finally does.

Over, and over, and over again, Thor says to the skies, “Thank you, Allfathers, for this blessing.”

Thor eventually lets Phil go, and Rhodey and Bruce come up to shake his hand. Steve can’t seem to tear his eyes away from Phil, but neither does he make any move to come and touch him for himself; Phil doesn’t push the issue. They slowly fall silent, Natasha inching her way back to Coulson’s side and wrapping herself around him, everyone else taking seats elsewhere in the room. Phil decides to let the moment lie, his head bowed, face buried against the top of Natasha’s head, and they all take the beat, let the comfort of a returned friend sink in.

With a sigh, Phil lifts his head and asks the question nobody seems to want to ask. “What’s the play?”

They begin to hash it out, going over everything each of them knows, asking what to do about Tony, wondering if he’s even alive out there, wherever he is; they all feel the dread and the grief and the guilt at their survival. But, Phil notices as he looks around at the team - _his_ team - they are not without hope. _Perhaps,_ he thinks, _if one friend can come back to them from death, so many years later and after such a horrific end, the rest can return as well._

There is work yet to be done, but they are called the Avengers, after all. And now, more than ever, they have someone to avenge.

**Author's Note:**

> It's 3:30 am on a Sunday and I can't stop thinking about the fact that Clark Gregg is resigned to the fact that the Avengers will probably never find out about Coulson, and that they've "moved on." I refuse to accept that, and I refuse to believe that the things that happened in Infinity War can just happen without Phil thinking it's high time he get off his ass and tell them he's alive. So this is that, or this is how I hope that would happen.
> 
> Unbeta'd, mistakes are my own.


End file.
